Saturday, May 3, 2014

After reading A Bad Case of Stripes and Too Many Toys by David Shannon, the students created Venn Diagrams to compare the stories. After creating their diagrams in small groups, they independently created foldables to show their understanding. On the top flap, they wrote the title "Comparing Stories by David Shannon." On the second flap, they wrote one thing that was the same for both of the stories. On the third and fourth flaps, they wrote how the two stories were different. But, the things that they chose as different had to relate back to how they were both the same. For example, if they chose that they both had a setting, they had to then explain how the settings were different from one another. If they chose that both books had problems, they had to explain the problems for both books. The purpose of this lesson was to build a deeper understanding of the elements that make up fiction stories.

While reading David Shannon books, we also learned about him as an author and illustrator. We watched a short interview with him from Scholastic and then created a Circle Map about facts learned. The students used the Circle Map to write a shared writing piece about him.

As a part of our David Shannon author study, we read Too Many Toys. The students retold the beginning, middle, and end. They also completed story maps to explain the characters, setting, problem, and solution. As an extra lesson, the students created a character traits template about the book's main character, Spencer. They described what he looked like, important information about him, and what they would do if they were him.

To learn about the elements and features of fiction story, we read various David Shannon books. One of the books we read was A Bad Case of Stripes. After reading, the students created a Story Map to explain the characters, setting, problem, and solution. In a separate lesson, not pictured, they also retold the beginning, middle, and end. After concluding our lessons over this book, the students created art to display with their work during Daily 5 time.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

As a part of our lessons on fiction story elements and our author study of Eric Carle, we compared the stories The Mixed-Up Chameleon and The Foolish Tortoise. Using a Double Bubble Map, we started with how the two stories are the same: author, problems, solutions, setting, animals, reptiles, etc. We then talked about how those things are the same, there are differences between them. We color coded the parts to show how although they have elements that are the same, the author used them differently to create two unique stories.

The students read The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle as a part of our author study and lessons on fiction story elements. After reading the book together, the students independently completed story maps to show their understanding of the characters, setting, problem, and solutions. While I worked with students in small groups, they painted a picture of The Mixed-Up Chameleon to display with their story maps.

Last week we conducted an author study of Eric Carle as a part of our unit on fiction texts and story elements. One of the books we read was The Foolish Tortoise. After reading, the students worked in small groups to retell the characters, setting, problem, and solution on a foldable. They also colored a tortoise inspired by Eric Carle's work to display with their foldables.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

To celebrate the 45th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and the first day of spring, all of first grade headed out to our school garden. We started our lesson by reading the book in English and Spanish. The students then worked in small groups to paint concrete stepping stones to look like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. After they dried, we added them to our garden as a pathway.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

We read Dvid Goes to School by David Shannon to practice following directions and to identify finding the parts of a book. After reading, the students created their own book with a title and author on the cover. On the inside, they wrote at least one rule they could follow from our class Social Contract.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

During our author study over David Shannon books, we read Pirates Don't Change Diapers. After reading the story, the students retold the beginning, middle, and end on a Flow Map using the Promethean Board. They then created a three-flap foldable individually to retell the story. Once they were finished, we had a mini-art lesson on how to draw a pirate. Their drawings turned out amazing!

As a part of our study over David Shannon books, we read Too Many Toys and A Bad Case of Stripes. As you can read about in previous posts, the students analyzed the characters, wrote about the beginning, middle, and end as well as the story elements. In this lesson, the students created a Double Bubble Map to compare the two stories. They then wrote at least one way the two stories were the same and two ways they were different on a four-tiered foldable. The foldables were displayed along with artwork they created for A Bad Case of Stripes. The students traced their hand and arm and then colored it with stripes.

After reading Too Many Toys by David Shannon, the students wrote about the main character, Spencer, on a person template. They wrote how he acts, what he feels, and what they would do if they were him. They then colored the template to look like Spencer.

After reading Alice the Fairy by David Shannon, the students wrote about the various character traits of the main character on a person template. They wrote about what she looks like, how she acts, some things she did in the book, and then if they would want to be a permanent fairy or a temporary fairy. They then colored the person template to look like her.

Continuing with our study of David Shannon books, we read A Bad Case of Stripes. The students created foldables again to write the beginning, middle, and end. They also completed a Story Map to write the characters, setting, problem, and solution.

As a part of an author study of David Shannon, we read Too Many Toys. The students created a three-flap foldable to record the beginning, middle, and end of the story and then completed Story Maps to record the characters, setting, problem, and solution.

As a part of our study on Eric Carle, we read The Foolish Tortoise. The students created a Story Map to record the characters, setting, problem, and solution of the story. They then colored a drawing of the tortoise to display with their Story Maps.

About Me

I am currently in my ninth year teaching at Moseley Elementary in Grand Prairie, TX. I previously taught First Grade for six years and am currently in my third year teaching Visual Arts. I use Bishop's Blackboard to share ideas from my classroom and other sources.